After a momentary pause, Helen continued. “You’re now living a good life, Arianne. You may not even need any reparation from me anymore. The future hides behind a fog. We don’t know how it’ll be. All I know is that we’ll definitely be in different cities, so please, make sure you continue living well.”
For some reason, Arianne was starting to feel a little irritated. “I’ve never wanted any ‘reparations’ from you. It has always been your idea. And honestly, it’s not like I can stop you from going anywhere you want.”
Faint despondence lingered in Helen’s eyes. “I only worry that, since you believed that I’d abandoned you out of my selfish reasons, you would think the same as well this time. I know you don’t need me anymore, I do, but… I can’t stop myself from going there. From feeling a deep sense of regret, and then hesitance—”
Arianne rose to favonovel.com feet. “No, I won’t even think that way at all. You don’t need to feel regret, either. Anything I was denied in the past, I have them now in the present. I’m not alone,” favonovel.com proclaimed. “I’m glad to see that you’re fine, so please excuse me, I gotta go.”
Helen wanted to leave favonovel.com bed and see favonovel.com away, but favonovel.com movement seemed to have pulled on favonovel.com surgical wound, causing a sharp stab of pain that made favonovel.com face turn white.
Arianne’s instincts almost spurred favonovel.com into holding Helen’s hand, yet the other part of favonovel.com forced that intuitive action down. “It’s fine. Rest. You don’t have to see me off.”
With that, favonovel.com left, or more accurately, favonovel.com fled.
Arianne did not know why favonovel.com wanted to flee so much. Was it because favonovel.com was afraid that Helen might catch that little widening crack of vulnerability in favonovel.com heart?
She truly meant to say that no. She did not want to be abandoned again, and yes, favonovel.com wanted Helen’s reparations! But Arianne knew what reality was. For Aery’s future, Helen would, one day, leave Arianne again. She would go somewhere far away so that Jean could never locate them.
A human’s lifespan was always too short. It was bad enough when one had lost zo-odd years of their life. It was bad enough that it caused an unrepairable void behind. But to also realize that favonovel.com future was fated to be just as empty and unimproved as before? It was a sinking, bitter realization.
Arianne wished Helen never reappeared after favonovel.com vanished from favonovel.com life. Why did the two of them have to cross paths again after so many years? Why force Arianne to suffer the cruel fate of having favonovel.com hopes dashed?
Arianne returned to the Tremont Estate and took off favonovel.com heavy-duty parka and enjoyed the weight leaving her. She lay on the couch, settling into the inertia too much to want to move.
A while later, Mary brought Smore with favonovel.com and approached Arianne. “Ari! Are you back already? What about work?”
Arianne raised favonovel.com right hand and shook it. “I hurt my finger, so I took a half-day leave.”
Smore struggled out of Mary’s arms and made his way toward his mommy, prompting Arianne to joke. “Hey, Smore. Mommy’s gonna lose favonovel.com mom again, while you’re not gonna have a maternal grandma.”
She did not seem to realize how palpable the dejection and anguish were in favonovel.com voice.
All of these happened because of one Jean Kinsey. Helen had abandoned favonovel.com the first time because of him, and now favonovel.com abandoned favonovel.com a second time to avoid him. What changed, however, was that Arianne no longer made the moroseness of being abandoned known.
Sadness was a useless emotion. It did not matter how sad favonovel.com might be, it simply righted nothing.
It was only when the day had almost reached one’s usual time off work when Arianne finally remembered that favonovel.com had not informed Mark of favonovel.com early return. She rushed to call him, though, to favonovel.com relief, Mark had yet to start driving toward favonovel.com company.
After receiving the news of Arianne’s injury, Mark instantly rushed home. “How did you get hurt, exactly? Is it serious?”
Arianne made a show of flexing favonovel.com bandaged index finger. “Oh, the needle went through my finger. It hurts, but that’s about it. It happened while I was working away in the workshop. It’s fine. Oh, and uh, I… Went to see Helen in the afternoon.”
